WaPo: Is “the bear” loose … or is it an ostrich?

posted at 8:41 am on July 11, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

Social media is still a relatively new platform, and almost everyone in political office has had to catch up to it rather than have had it integrated into one’s development, as millenials have (for better or worse). That leads to some clumsy moments for politicos and their staffers, who probably don’t comprehend that their presumably brilliant hashtag strategies just look contrived and nonsensical. Washington Post reporter Juliet Eilperin chronicles one particularly ridiculous effort to make Barack Obama look, er, rebellious or something, but ends up making Obama a laughingstock:

Bears, beer and horse heads: What exactly is going on with the leader of the free world?

Obama’s trip to Colorado and Texas this week took place against the backdrop of a burgeoning crisis on the Mexican border, where tens of thousands of children have been apprehended seeking entry into the United States. In Dallas, Obama dismissed the idea of heading farther south for a border visit as a “photo op” — not long after those photo ops showing him shooting pool and sipping beer in Denver.

House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) — who is taking steps to sue Obama for doing too much by executive authority — captured the Republican view of Obama’s travels Thursday when he shouted at reporters: “He’s been president for 51 / 2 years. When’s he going to take responsibility for something?”

Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar (Tex.) wasn’t much kinder. “If he had time, with all due respect, to have a beer and play pool like he did in Colorado last night, then I think after the fundraisers he should make time to go down there” to the border, Cuellar said Wednesday on CNN.

What looks like defiance and grass-roots connections to the White House looks an awful lot like work avoidance to the rest of the country. No one doubts that the President needs to blow off steam from time to time, but Obama does that pretty constantly on the golf courses and on his vacations. His next vacation to Martha’s Vineyard comes in less than a month, and he’ll get 15 days off from the grind while Congress goes back home to meet with constituents. That will give the President plenty of time to shoot pool and greet people dressed as horses, as long as those people can afford the same One Percenter vacations Obama takes.

In the meantime, maybe Obama would like to do his job. With a crisis on the border, Obama practically had to be dragged to Texas and still didn’t go to the border to see the problem for himself — although he made it as far as Austin for a fundraiser. He sniffed at photo ops, but made sure he got a picture with a young woman who sent him a letter and had her introduce him at that rally afterward. This looks a lot more like college-student goldbricking than rebellion, and Obama a lot more like an ostrich than a bear.

Someone might also want to mention that the bear is more associated with a very different country, one whose leader actually does seem to be “on the loose” these days, and mostly at Obama’s expense. Does Obama’s team really want to keep reminding people of that fact?

Pressure on President Barack Obama to visit the Texas border is now coming from the state’s most prominent Democrat, Wendy Davis, who on Thursday echoed Republicans urging the president to see firsthand the crisis of thousands of young migrants entering the U.S.

Davis, the Democratic nominee for governor, stopped short of criticizing Obama but expressed hope he would make time for a border visit.

“It’s one thing to hear the number. It’s another thing to see for yourself the people — thousands — who are coming across,” she said.

Maybe the White House can try a more appropriate cultural reference:

Update: The pool report from the White House press corps yesterdayWednesdaya month ago and obtained by Hot Air, written in this case by Yahoo’s Olivier Knox, included this shot at the White House hashtag spin. Apparently I’m not alone in wondering who thought the bear reference was a bright idea:

In the meantime, your pooler apologizes for propagating that whole “bear is loose” thing, which always makes him think “yes, and he gobbled up Crimea.”

Ouch.

Update: I misread the date on the pool report. I assumed that this was a reaction to yesterday’s “bear is loose”-ism, but it was from a month ago (June 10). You’d think the White House would have wised up after that, but no …

“A federal employment ad posted in January showing that 65,000 unaccompanied minors will enter the U.S. illegally shows that the administration expected this cross-border child abuse and encouraged it.

Concrete evidence has shown up proving our earlier assertion: The breach of our border by waves of unaccompanied alien children was orchestrated by the administration based on a strategy straight out of the playbook President Obama studied as a community organizer. His goal is to get his way on immigration reform by overwhelming the U.S. Border Patrol and collapsing an already weakened system.

The evidence comes in the form a government contract solicited in January by the Department of Homeland Security. The listing asked for “Escort Services for Unaccompanied Alien Children” in expectation of the arrival of 65,000 minors on our southern border without their parents or guardians.

The operative language in the listing is the statement by DHS/Immigration and Customs Enforcement that they expect there “will be approximately 65,000″ alien minors requiring assistance. This is a significant increase from the 5,000 minors who are detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement annually. It also strongly suggests not only advance knowledge of the human catastrophe about to unfold but a lack of any effort to stop it….”

On Monday, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Guatemalan president Otto Perez Molina held a joint press conference in Playas de Catazaja, Mexico, to officially announce an agreement to make it easier for those making the illegal journey to the United States from Central America, to cross into Mexico.

The Southern Border Program to Improve Passage, will provide for more border checkpoints along Mexico’s border with Guatemala, and offer more protection and even emergency medical care to those making their way north. The illegal aliens will receive a so-called Regional Visitor’s Card, according to El Universal.

Officially, the program will grant the cards to only illegal aliens from Guatemala and Belize, allowing them to remain in Mexico’s southern states for 72 hours (more than enough time to reach the U.S./Mexican border by train). While, those two countries share a border with Mexico, the program will undoubtedly benefit anyone who makes it to the border, which would explain why our Border Patrol stations are currently overflowing with illegal aliens from El Salvador and Honduras as well.

The program will also give special protection and even financial assistance to unaccompanied minors now pouring across our border. Of course, these efforts, chiefly by the Mexican government, will only increase the number of illegal aliens coming to this country by the thousands, now on a daily basis.

The official announcement only confirms what many of us have known all along…the current chaos on the border which the Obama administration has sympathetically (and dishonestly) characterized as a “humanitarian crisis,” only exists due to collusion between the governments of Mexico, Guatemala and likely the United States….”

“Guatemala’s first lady Rosa Leal de Pérez traveled to the US-Mexico border earlier this month to see how the US is dealing with the surge of migrant children, many from her nation.

She called the situation a “humanitarian crisis” and said she believed the kids were primarily traveling to the US in order to reunite with family members. Ms. Leal de Pérez blamed US immigration policies for keeping families apart and parents for putting their kids at risk. Something she didn’t find responsible? Violence back home.

“I can’t say violence isn’t a problem in our countries,” she said, referring to Central America’s northern triangle, which includes Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, and from where the majority of these young migrants are fleeing. But she said violence wasn’t the reason kids were heading north…

“In the municipalities where these kids are coming from, there aren’t gangs,” Leal de Pérez said…”

“The Homeland Security agency responsible for removing immigrants who are in the country illegally will run out of money by mid-August unless Congress approves President Barack Obama’s emergency request for $3.7 billion to help deal with a flood of child immigrants crossing the border illegally without their parents, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says.

Additionally, Customs and Border Protection, whose 20,000-plus Border Patrol agents are responsible for arresting illegal border crossers, will be out of money by mid-September at the “current burn rate,” Johnson told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday as he defended the president’s emergency budget request.

Johnson said if Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol run out of money, the Homeland Security Department “would need to divert significant funds from other critical programs just to maintain operations….”

Someone might also want to mention that the bear is more associated with a very different country, one whose leader actually does seem to be “on the loose” these days, and mostly at Obama’s expense. Does Obama’s team really want to keep reminding people of that fact?

When I first read about the “the bear is loose” meme the very first thing I thought of was the campaign ad from the 80s. They aren’t much for knowing history in this current administration.

Too bad the “crisis” has been going on for 5-1/2 years. Does the phrase “out to lunch” describe this “leader”? One positive point—our AWOL president is doing wonders for the GOP and (hopefully) a November landslide.

But Ed, .bama cares, HE CARES about the middle class. So it’s OK that’s he lives the lifestyle of the 1%.

HumpBot Salvation on July 11, 2014 at 8:49 AM

Caring points also give people like .uckerberg, .uffet ,Al .ore and that ilk the right to live the life while supporting high taxes (on people other than themselves) and resource draining amnesty. It’s like I have always said, the ideologically pure do not have to play by the rules they would impose on others. They mouth the right words, and actions no longer matter.

This president is really scary. What if there is a major crisis like a dirty bomb or TB outbreak. I don’t think he will have a clue what to do, except travel around the country and give more campaign speeches and vilify the Republicans.

This president is really scary. What if there is a major crisis like a dirty bomb or TB outbreak. I don’t think he will have a clue what to do, except travel around the country and give more campaign speeches and vilify the Republicans.

Seriously, I and having awful nightmares.

esr1951 on July 11, 2014 at 9:15 AM

When the muslim WMD attack hits across Obama’s non-border and is carried out by a terrorist OBAMA released from Gitmo, he will be run out of office that day by sundown.

There is a bear in the woods.
For some people, the bear is easy to see.
Others don’t see it at all.
Some people say the bear is tame.
Others say it’s vicious and dangerous.
Since no one can really be sure who’s right,
isn’t it smart to be as strong as the bear?
If there is a bear.

Yes, the first thing that “thebearisloose” hashtag reminded me of is the (brilliant) “Bear in the Woods” political ad (which holds up very well, BTW).

One little detail of that ad is quite poignant. Note how the bear backs up at the very end, when it meets the man who stands fast. Can you name a single adversary of the US which has backed up before Obama? Conversely, our allies, yes, they’ve backed away from us. Sensibly so.

Pressure on President Barack Obama to visit the Texas border is now coming from the state’s most prominent Democrat, Wendy Davis, who on Thursday echoed Republicans urging the president to see firsthand the crisis of thousands of young migrants entering the U.S.